Saturday, November 14, 2009

Burwood Highway Pedestrian Bridge finally open!

Yes, it has finally happened. Last weekend (November 7-8), the Burwood Highway Pedestrian bridge finally opened (or removed) it's gates! After months of welding problems, structural faults, dodgy paint work and who knows how many more problems, it is now open for all pedestrians and cyclists. No longer will you have to wait up to 3 traffic light cycles to get from one side of Burwood Highway to the other. What used to take minutes now takes seconds. Having inspected the bridge, I am very happy with the quality of the finished product. I would just like to see some landscaping around the bridge because the area is pretty ugly in terms of greenery.

Here are a few snapshots of the finished and opened bridge. I have already used one as my new background on the Melbourne Bike Routes Twitter account.

View down one of the ramps

View across the bridge itself

A view of the intersection you will never have to cross at again! How fantastic!

Now we all wait as one more intersection gets bypassed at the Maroondah Highway in Ringwood, which is progressing well.

5 comments:

I didn't notice that. It's not a proper bus lane. It's just a little section of road where the bus can get in front of the cars at the intersection when the traffic lights are red. If you look closer, there is no bus lane on the other side of the intersection. Because the traffic lights are green and there is no congestion, the bus had no reason to go in the bus lane!

I remember there was a bit of a delay getting that bridge up and running. On scheduled construction date I planned my journey around it, in accordance with the signage instructions, only to find a few days later that the thing was still sitting beside the road (rather than suspended above it). It was so great when it finally did go up!

I used to take that bus to school! It's amazing how much nature in that strip has gone to the freeway but at the same time how they placed an importance of a bike route even during construction. Wantirna is awesome riding.

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I am a male who lives and breathes all things Melbourne, with a general interest in transport. I am an ideas man who wishes to gain more public interest in transport issues which sometimes get overlooked.